By Mary Ellen Leonard, Director of Fiscal Services
For almost three decades, the City of College Station’s Utility Customer Service department has operated with an old “green screen” computer system housed on an ancient server called an AS400.
But that obsolete dinosaur of a system will soon be old news as a long-awaited upgrade is finally on the way. The billing system touches almost every resident, and changing the process all at once is a colossal undertaking.
Beginning Friday morning, UCS will stop processing bills and accepting payments until the production facility for the new Origin system is ready for business. Our high-impact internal team that has worked on the conversion will join Origin personnel to move data from the old Navaline system. At least five vendors will also be involved.
Once all the data has been moved and the vendor integrations are active, we hope to have UCS back in business by mid-next week.
Payments can not be made while the system is being converted, but customers will not be charged late fees and there will be no disconnections while the system is unavailable.
We are conducting a massive communications effort to ensure our customers know about the changes. The most notable change is the 12-digit account numbers will evolve into a cleaner 10-digit format to simplify customer interactions. If you do business online, you must create a new online login after receiving the new account number.
The need for a modern system that bills and collects one-third of the city’s annual revenue each year was identified as a critical replacement nearly a decade ago. However, converting an old database with multiple integrations into other city systems required not only the right software but also the right people.
A small group of highly motivated city personnel from the UCS, IT, and Finance departments have led the implementation. Since late 2022, the system has been thoroughly configured, integrated, and tested, and personnel have been trained to do daily tasks in a significantly different way. The software developer even praised the city for conducting the most comprehensive and complete testing they’ve seen.
We’re confident the upgraded system will benefit everyone involved, especially our customers, and we sincerely appreciate your patience during the changeover.
Related Post: How CSU is making your online billing experience smoother and more accessible
About the Blogger
Mary Ellen Leonard has been the city’s director of fiscal services since 2016. She previously was the chief financial officer for the Grub Burger Bar restaurant chain and operated her accounting firm for 14 years. A CPA since 1988, Mary Ellen has also served as a senior manager at Accenture and Arthur Andersen, CFO at Devereux Hospital, and senior financial analyst at Tenneco Gas Pipeline. She earned a degree in accounting from Texas A&M in 1986.
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